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If you read this site regularly, you’re already aware that I’m a huge Chimaira fan. In fact, I pride myself on knowing way too much about them.
I guess I haven’t officially reached stalker status yet, though, because until I read this interview with Chimaira lead guitarist Rob Arnold, I had no idea that the dude had another band – The Elite.
Chimaira have never made the same exact album twice, so the only thing a listener can assume about a new Chimaira record is this: it’s going to be crushingly heavy. This band makes truly unpleasant, misanthropic Metal with a capital fucking “M.” Fuck, their most famous song is all about how they don’t like you very much.
The Infection is no exception. It sounds at once both distinctly like Chimaira and yet not precisely like anything the band has ever made before. The dichotomy of it, though, is that the vitriol is wrapped the catchiest and, in some ways, most optimistic music the Cleveland sextet has ever created.
Alright. First thing’s first: we have heard The Infection. It slays. Fucking SLAYS, dude. I’ll post a full review real soon, but for now, just know that listening to this record might kill your grandma.
As with Chimaira’s last album, Resurrection, there will be a special edition of The Infection that comes with a making of DVD directed by Todd Bell (who also directed the band’s excellent documentary The Dehumanizing Process). Here’s a quick tease:
Now, obviously, that’s just a taste, but I already dig that guitarist Rob Arnold is being so straight-forward: yes, he thinks this is their best album yet, but, yes, he admits he always feels that way – so this isn’t your typical “THIS IS OUR MOST BR00TAL ALBUM EVER!” hype.
The Infection comes out one week from today on Ferret in North America and Nuclear Blast everywhere else.
-AR
I still haven’t heard Chimaira’s The Infection. But because I’m a Chimaira dork, it was with great excitement that I listened to the fifteen second samples of each of the album’s ten songs on Amazon this morning. After the jump, my completely unfair snap judgement on thsi 150 seconds of new Chimaira music.
Holy crap, people are getting The Infection tats already? That’s fucking devotion.
ANYWAY, here’s some cool Chimaira shit you should know about:
Few bands in modern metal are as exciting as Chimaira. That’s because few bands constantly undergo such a dramatic and undeniable evolutions from album to album – and do so with a bare minimum of line-up changes. From their 2000 self-released debut, This Present Darkness, right up to 2007’s Resurrection, Chimaira have never made the same album twice. Elements of thrash, death, groove, black, and even prog metal and punk abound, and, ultimately, the only thing you ever know for sure about a new Chimaira album is this: it’s gonna be heavy as a motherfucker, and just as catchy.
As the band – which includes guitarists Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries, bassist Jim LaMarca, drummer Andols Herrick, and keyboardist/sampler Chris Spicuzza – anticipates the April 21 release of their sixth album, The Infection, we were lucky enough to snag an exclusive e-mail interview with vocalist Mark Hunter. After the jump, read Mark’s thoughts on the group’s latest offering, the ongoing metamorphosis of their sound, reuniting with longtime producer Ben Schigel, the internet as a marketing tool, the state of his pure hatred, and more.
So as you may have heard by now, Chimaira are allowing fans to watch them live in the studio as they record their new album. The way it works is, you go to their official site and if the “Live Cam” icon in the upper right corner of the screen is red, you can click on it and watch whatever the fuck they’re doing at the moment. Sounds pretty cool, right?
Unfortunately, as I watched drummer Andols Herrick finish up his tracks yesterday afternoon, I remembered something I already knew: being in the studio is not super exciting. In fact, it’s pretty tedious. Herrick played some drums, picked his cuticles, played the same song again, picked his cuticles some more, fucked around with the cymbals a little, spoke (inaudibly) with producer Ben Schigel, played the same song again… and then I woke up an hour later with drool all over my keyboard.
Chimaira are one those bands that take a lot of shit and never really understand why. Is it because their Roadrunner debut, Pass Out of Existence, was a not especially great Korn-esque foray into nu metal? Does it really fucking matter? Every album they’ve made since (or, for that matter, This Present Darkness, the independently released album they made pre-Existence) has been as heavy as an elephant standing on your balls, and their sound continues to evolve.
So the band are apprently gonna enter the studio in October to make a new album, which will presumably be released in 2009. That news makes me so friggin’ excited I just wanna go out on the street and grab the cutest baby I can find and slam its head into a plate glass window. The album will be produced by Jason Suecof, who also produced their last disc, Resurrection. I know a lot of people though that Resurrection was a weak follow-up to 2005’s self-titled masterpiece. Chimaira is fucking awesome but so was Resurrection so those people should smoke a joint and just calm the fuck down.
Here’s some footage of the band recording “Six,” one of their most impressive songs. It comes off of the “make-of” DVD that came with Resurrection. After you’re done basking in its metallic goodness, read our interview with Chimaria’s lead guitarist, Rob Arnold, here, in which we get the skinny on this crushing, sprawling, epic donkey punch of a song.
-AR
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